Author: chris

I want to make clear that I am not attacking daniel and that this isn’t an attack article, it’s an article about a clear example of religious extremism taken to the point where it can become very destructive, but in ways the person at the center doesn’t realise. So I explain some backstory and then interactions that happened between us that lead us to the conclusion that religious extremism in many ways like a cult, can separate people who have been friends for a very long time.

**Also, daniel has an open invitation to make any ammendments which are supportive by the facts that he wants to make, if he contacts me to correct something he disagrees with.**

Yesterday I lost a friend,

Not just any friend, but someone I considered to be my friend for about 15 years, I haven’t had much contact with him in recent years, but when I was 18 or so I used to talk to this person almost every day and I spent a great deal at their home and I would like to think that I was welcome there. Why else would I be asked to come so many times.

The backstory

The friend I mention is Daniel, his family are Christians and we often had very heated and intricate discussions about religion, life, the universe and everything. Those days were very good days to be in. I used to remember those days fondly and how great it was to simply sit and discuss issues openly without fear of being told an issue is not up for discussion, even though I knew that I would not ultimately change anyones mind. Which was never the point, but just to explore the issues and find what people believed and how it would affect them. Never have I had any issue with discussing any issue, regardless of how sensitive it was.

His father, Mike, was gracious, patient and calm, he’s a very friendly man with a bushy beard who has a great sense of humour and was, as I remember it, friendly even talking about issues where we strongly disagreed, never was I removed from his home for being a “heathen” or disbeliever, in fact, he seemed perfectly happy with our presence (our being his other friends who were similarily disbelievers). It seemed that his attitude was that you should never close the door on somebody, regardless of the reason, as it was not polite and even though you disagree, it’s natural and just carry on with life, perhaps he also thought that if he closed the door, he would lose the ability to try and challenge me into a situation where I would never accept what he believed, so better to keep the door open and discuss, rather than get annoyed and close it.

All of his family was always a nice family to know, daniel back in those days, could hold his temper and hold his ground without resorting to pettiness, because he always told me that it’s fine that I disagree and he actually accepted that I would never convert to his religion, but that it wasn’t important, only that I kept myself open to the possibility that daniel was right.

Which I have always done, even though I’m a heavy believer in evolution, I always keep the door ajar slightly, because really, I’m like everyone else, I BELIEVE in evolution, but I can’t be stupid enough to completely discount something I cannot possibly know, even though this won’t get me into the kingdom of heaven, because ultimately to do that, you must accept jesus into your life, etc, etc. I refuse to close the door, even though I think it’s completely impossible.

So close was daniel and myself that it was me who convinced daniel to goto university in the first place, he at first wasn’t going to go, he was working at a computer shop in a small town called Buckley and he was one of the technicians who fixed computers and helped customers, he was really good at it and I remember the conversation that started it, I was asking why he wasn’t going to go, that really, he should go because if he doesn’t, perhaps he will regret it, perhaps one day he’ll want that degree and he’ll have to work double if at a later date he changed his mind. He went downstairs, spoke with his father, came back upstairs about 1 hour later, saying he was going and he was actually going to the same university that I was going to join. So myself and daniel are not strangers. Although I’m not trying to take responsibility for his success, right now, daniel is a chief architect in a very successful company and is very successful, has money, a great life, a beautiful wife, children and everything that I am sure came from that very conversation about university.

The first battle

Skipping forward a few years after we went to university, I met a spanish girl and moved to barcelona to make my career take off, which it has done so, but I remember one night, we chatted on msn about things and the topic of evolution appeared again, although I don’t know the reason why and I think the conversation has gotten lost in the sands of time, or at least, it stored someplace in my archive (which has grown quite a lot, I should put effort to organising that, perhaps it would make finding things a lot easier). I remember it was in september/october 2006, but anyway. We spoke cordially at first, but then, daniel started to suggest that the reason I didn’t agree with him was that I didn’t understand him, that I lacked the necessary mentality that I needed to understand and that actually, I was just incapable. I should point out that I’m an intelligent, successful programmer who has worked in barcelona for the last 4 years gaining clients and acceptance. I’m not a chav/shmuck/idiot from Connah’s Quay who can’t spell his own name.

Over the duration of that conversation, more and more “slightly” insulting back handed comments came over, although I have my own sarcastic manner of speaking, I normally reserve it for people who treat me with equal temperament. So if daniel was hearing sarcasm, you can imagine what I was hearing and how it was provoked. He mentioned the scientist Micheal Behe, who has been discredited and debunked many times, even by the university that he worked at, even accepted in a court case that his examples of “irreductable complexity” was in fact, out of date and needed revising. I refuted daniels points in a sarcastic manner that the conversation was taking on both sides and daniel went very very very out of control, he started to get very insulting and tell me that if I was too thick to listen to people, then perhaps I should stop talking, etc. You can imagine, this is all over chat, so we don’t know if those smiley faces are really smiles, or just hiding the insults behind a smile so to reduce the impact the insult has on the other. The daniel disconnected in a very unpleasant manner and left me feeling that it was him not wanting to continue to be in contact with me. Daniel disappeared and I never spoke to him again. That was until I added him on facebook last year (2009). So the signs of extremism were appearing, even if they never surfaced that often.

The quiet before the storm

At first, we did the normal friend things, comments and stuff, he was never a facebook person (like his brother, nathan, who is equally disconnected, unless he has another account I dont know and twitters, etc, but I don’t think so). So we only spoke sometimes.

The second act

Recently (june->august 2010) we started to talk on articles that he put up about religion and some of those topics spoke about evolution. As before, in order to provide a balance in the discussion, I added my points about evolution and spoke directly to some of his friends. To the point where a couple of his friends added me to their facebook, because we shared a similar attitude, or perhaps because we got along and it’s just the “facebook” think to do.

Regardless of those things, I started to find messages being deleted from threads I was commenting on and it was daniel who was deleting them, I challenged him to explain why he was censoring my comments and he replied that I was insulting people and it was unacceptable, that he was deleteing the comments because it was not fair to people I didn’t know that they have to read insults because of a thread that daniel has written. That it was daniel’s facebook and ultimately, he has responsibility to moderate what people say and cannot say.

However much you feel about censorship, he is right, however, moderating away comments which don’t have insults in them, or which were perfectly reasonable, is not moderation, it’s censorship. I challenged him again and he repeated himself. I asked him explicitly to name and shame the comments I made which were insulting, he never replied. But did reply to another point, so obviously he ignored the question. That made me determined to put back the comment, so I did, we then have a huge facebook email thread between us where we discuss various insults I may have said and issues that he brought up and how I wanted him to point them out, explicitly, I challenged him to reveal the “universally accepted principle of information from intelligence” which again, he ignored.

To anyone reading, there *IS* no universally accepted principe of information from intelligence, it’s just something daniel and his friends have made up to back up his believe in Intelligent Design and probably comes from the group supported by Micheal Behe, the disgraced and discredited scientist from america

All of this led to him deleting the note on facebook and recreating it and trying to get me to agree that I should move this to a facebook forum to discuss it (which I’m unsure of where it is, I think he didnt create it like he promised). Then he opened a facebook chat and spoke to me and I voiced my opinion that I disagreed with him, saying that deleting it would be an act of censorship, he shrugged and said that it was his facebook, so he can do what he wants. That was the end of the issue, I cannot do anything, except voice my disagreement

Signs of extremism

The second time, which happened a few days ago (10/08/2010) was an equal discussion, but this time, there was no insults made, in fact, one of daniels friends was making some very very harsh comments, swearing and generally having a laugh, I thought he was hilarious. His comments still exists, it is not deleted, however, the following comment was deleted. It goes like this

“I still think people with a rudimentary level of scientific knowledge can answer the question correctly mwhahahha, everyone else is a religious person (yay! another lolfest!)”

The comment is made very lightheartedly and poking fun at daniel. But the comment with all the swearing and bad mouthing, still remains. I will make a mental note of the irony.

About 2 minutes afterwards, he replied saying that he agrees, but wants to keep the conversation “friendly”

I replied to him saying that we were keeping the conversation friendly.

Little did I realise that to daniel friendly means, he will delete my comment, his comment about being friendly, then he will remove me from his facebook friends. All because of that comment.

I quickly emailed him over facebook asking WTF? I have reproduced the email thread here:

To daniel: (09 August at 19:45) ->
“? are you seriously going to kill our friendship after how many years over this issue? you removed me from facebook?

you really have turned into a christian nutcase. I’m very disappointed in you. how far you have fallen. from intelligent and open minded, to closed minded and bitter.

enjoy your aids.”

To chris: (09 August at 20:03) ->
“Don’t be ridiculous bro. It’s just Facebook

I enjoy your spirit. I always have – it’s one of the things that sets you apart. I’d rather not have removed you from my Facebook, but you seemed to keep crossing that boundary on my Notes. Why oh why can’t you give a little credit to others instead of just running others down and giving credit to yourself?

Strangely, I am not the guy I used to be. I’m actually far more patient and tolerant now. Which is why I see more clearly when you are running others down. I used to do it, but I grew up. Take some advice from an old friend who genuinely cares for you, as I do. Learn how to speak with a little graciousness.”

Apparently daniel thinks that deleting a friend he’s had for about 15 years from facebook is patient and tolerant, I would say that it’s actually the opposite. That it’s demonstrating a complete lack of tolerance of another opinion. he also has a very short memory, I can quote him from the first occurance, we also had a lot of facebook emails, one of them goes like this

To chris: (08 July at 09:54) ->
“And you know what, the reason I’m less tolerant now is because I used to be just like you, upsetting people with insensitive comments. But I’ve grown up a bit, and now I’m more aware of it.”

So I suppose you can’t be LESS tolerant and MORE tolerant at the same time, can you?? But for daniel, it makes COMPLETE SENSE!

To daniel: (09 August at 20:19) ->
“Unfortunately for you daniel, facebook is documented everything that was said and your further baseless idiotic claims against me, run against you, you can’t hide from the truth and the truth is, you removed me from facebook because you cannot tolerate anyone elses opinion other than you own.

it’s a sad day, because I lost a friend, but a good day, that you were revealed for being the closed minded fool you turned into.

sorry to see you go daniel, I hope that one day, you come back to sanity and realise your mistake and how stupid you were.”

So you can see I’m angry and not helping the situation much by what I said, I’m angry because I can’t believe that daniel will ruin our friendship over a stupid issue that can be ignored by any other intelligent person, but for daniel, disagreeing with him, is enough to make him want to break friends with that person, however much he spouts that it’s “just facebook”.

To chris: (09 August at 20:33) ->
“I may be a fool. But I am God’s fool. Not my own.

Joshua 24:15”

So now you can see that daniel isn’t interested in explaining himself, or saving our friendship, he is actually pushing the buttons, he seems to WANT to break our friendship up, over a simple comment that was pretty innocent to be honest.

The end

The reason to explain all this in so much detail, if that it documents how a open minded, bright and intelligent person, can become corrupted by religion to such a point that outside opinion is excised, removed and unwelcome, that any attempt to put on a level playing field a scientific opinion, is howled down with ridicule and insults, however ironic it maybe coming from someone emailing you that you are insulting.

The dangers of insular communities with religion

I spoke with some friends about the issue and they gave me an enlightening opinion on Daniels current state of mind. It was mentioned that where he lives, you have a very extremist version of Christianity that equals that of central america, shotgun territory. That if you don’t understand, it’s because you are simple minded and stupid, that you shouldn’t question things that are obvious, because God explained them to us in the bible, which now apparently cannot be dissected and learned from, but must be read and understood AS IT IS WRITTEN. That the community in his surrounding area, is very insular and therefore becomes disconnected with the outside world physically, this leads people to enter a positive reinforcement loop where the only opinion they regularly hear is the opinion they already hold, therefore hearing an opinion which they disagree with, leads to a very extreme reaction where ultimately you are cast out and villified for your transgressions against the lord.

This is the danger of religious extremism, the danger that can remove you from rational thought, that can ultimately lead you down a path where you have no choices, because they are all made, why would you choose, your friends and family agree, so there is no need to question.

Another friend, explained to me that perhaps it was an illusion the friendship between myself and daniel, that it was all smiles on the surface, but below, it was never a friendship to begin with, it was merely an acquaintence like friendship, where we know each other, we sit and talk to each other, but really, are not good friends. The reasoning for this was that if a simple, nonsensical argument can be enough to destroy a friendship, then it was a weak, unstable friendship to begin with.

I hope that he was wrong, but the more time I take to reflect, the more I realise that perhaps he was right.

Well, recently I had some fun at the expense of an unemployed(able?) person, I have to admit, it was a wrong thing to do, I don’t know why I did it, oh yeah, actually, I do remember….

CAUSE HE IS A GIANT DICK

thats right, it’s true, you can read it on the interwebs to know it’s true or not, don’t just take my word for it, he is literally talking out of his ass, 24/7 and I actually got onto his blog, I don’t know whats worse, knowing he exists, or knowing that literally thous..tens of people will swamp over my little blog and throw plastic penises at me.

It all started many years ago, when zed committed career suicide, hilarious as it was, it was a good time, a period of happiness for everyone, over the following period of time, I noticed his name again and again, always saying something retarded and very stupid, or at least, repeating something someone else said, but in a stupid manner, therefore making everyone miss the point of what he was actually trying to say and concentrate on his asshole instead.

I am sure that deep down, zed wants to be loved, or at least, he wants to be recognised, we all do. The problem for zed is that not many people like him and it hurts his options for future happiness. Normally, I would recognise such a person as a worthy programmer looking for glory, we have to admit it, we all are that person, all the programmers who read this, wants to create something that everyone will look up to and recognise the intelligence held inside the creator and repeat to their friends, creating a world of opportunity for said person.

Now, before we begin, I just wanna point out, that I have no personal beef with zed, it’s his mouth I have beef with, most of what he says is harmless fun and I reckon he’s a megalolcow, I appreciate some of the things he has said, I want to say that now, because I don’t want people to think I’m hating JUST BECAUSE I HAVE NOTHING BETTER TO DO. I have my reasons and although he’ll act like a bitch the rest of his life and never really understand my point, I have to say it, just because honesty is the best policy.

I also want to point out, that on my blog, freedom of speech is paramount, even if that speech hurts me, if it causes a great deal of hurt, maybe I’ll spam your comment, but I allow you to rant and rage as much as you like. Unlike zed, who isn’t interested in the opinions of others.

I like your thinking!!

Perhaps thats the first clue to the puzzle.

He recently ranted a little bit incoherently about my acheivements and said I’m in the bottom 20% blah blah, you can read it here:

basically, he likes to think he’s in the top 1% of the programmer group and I’m in the bottom 20%, his reasoning is because he only found 2 or 3 of my projects that I’ve not had time to fully create and properly structure, therefore, I must be a giant douche bag.

First observation: I am a giant douche 😀 I like it, it’s why I have fun in life and I don’t really care what some balding man with no future says.

so therefore, I decided to break apart again another one of his idiotic ramblings and dissect it online, with the ability to comment back if you disagree, on what I’m about to say.

first up, zed has a short memory

know, you probably read that sentence and thought, “Well shit Zed, that’s what you do asshole.” You’re right, but I restrict my ranty words to assholes I feel are hurting other people, and I can take it as good as I get it.

It seems obvious to most people that zed has a personality which loves himself as well as one whose primary purpose seems to be doing exactly what he says he doesn’t do, although it’s nice to know he can take as much as he gets. big man.

oh and btw zed, I didnt “attempt” to troll you, I did troll you, the fact that you took the time to make a big deal out of it and post up your puny attempt to get your own back proves that, if I didn’t troll you, if it was water off a ducks back, you’d have just gone back to playing your guitar, right? But you didn’t, you opened up your blog and fired away.

I would call that a mission successful.

The zed predicts the future.

Then I got bored. I mean, if you’re gonna troll a mother fucker at least do it right. I think I’d rather watch a homeless guy pound a steamer into a San Francisco sidewalk than play troll with a guy who has no grasp of the English language despite probably being British.

hey zed man, do you need some money? I can lend you some because I know you’re down on your luck and nobody really wants to employ you anymore, how does ten bucks sound? I want it back by friday though. So in a very serious and real way, zed might actually BE THAT HOMELESS GUY pounding a great big steaming pile of turd into the san francisco sidewalk in the near future, I would love to see that btw, could you be such a great guy and whip out the mobile phone, take a video and youtube that fucker for me? could ya? thanks, I’ll give you another ten bucks, for real! shizzle!

Then zed surprises all of us by saying he doesnt know how to use wordpress “His blog barely works.” yeah, nice one mate, I’m sure you can google that one by yourself.

then he mentions an old forgotten project, which I still use, but havent had time to keep up the website, ESFTP, what zed didn’t take time to find out about, was that ESFTP has over 100,000 downloads and even people at AMD are using it (I had a support request with an amd.com email address).

Who uses eclipse? what, you couldn’t go and find that out on the net? millions of people use it you fucking moron.

Why did I create ESFTP? because in eclipse, it wasn’t possible to quickly and easily upload a file to a remote location, you had to navigate through about 10 screens to get to the point of uploading, I wanted to attach it to a shortcut and press three keys to upload a file, thats why people download the plugin, I’ll give you some stats from recent months.

Date (UTC)

Rank

Total Pages

Downloads

7 May 2010

21,292

180

21

16 May 2010

21,191

92

3

15 May 2010

21,496

135

3

14 May 2010

21,422

170

10

13 May 2010

21,637

307

27

12 May 2010

22,210

334

18

So, when people say my shitty project which I created for my own benefit and decided to share in bad shape, with bugs, with errors, without unit tests, I think I am doing quite nicely thank you very much.

Are there any unit tests? nope! you know why, because unit tests are overrated, sure, they are necessary when you are providing a quality product for a client, but when you’re writing code for yourself, they are just wasted time.

He has blog posts bitching about Eclipse, so I’m pretty sure he’s a one trick Java pony

Zed, do you know how many people hit my blog looking for that information, eclipse is complex and sometimes fails, my technical writings about fixing those problems I found whilst using it, are very useful to lots of people, you can just look at the comments on those posts to find people thanking me for saving them serious time.

Even the project he seems to have nailed me on, is an outdated, deprecated project which has no website for a reason, it’s because, it was dropped, but apparently the empty directory is enough to secure my fate, this guy is a fucktard.

Then zed predicts the future again, although, not in the way he would probably appreciate

Reading through his blog you’d think he’s an incredibly good programmer making millions working for someone, and who knows maybe he is making shitloads of money, although I doubt it.

It just so happens, I am signing this week a project that has a projected €40,000 a month value, of which I will retrieve a 25% share of that into my own pocket, after taxes, like I said, if you need to borrow a dollar, I’ll give you one, no problems. Can you imagine, €10,000 a month, in one year, €120,000. Thats just my personal take home. So I suppose you are right, I am, or will be, soon, making shitloads of money. Well predicted!!!

Then zed is AGAIN showing us his ability to find the truth of the matter

Researching this guy, it got me thinking again about my theory of the internet creating the “rise of the twenty-percenter”.

Yes, you see zed, your theory is right, because, you are an example of it. This guy is on the money! (although not literally) he’s banging it out left right and center.

As for your theory, I totally agree, I in fact would subscribe to the same view, the internet is full of people who actually can’t create anything, nor know how to create anything, it’s a hard fact of life that most programmers around me, are not competant, a company I used to work for has two of those same people. I won’t mention the company name because google likes my blog too much and it finds too many things, I dont want to directly insult people.

NOTE: if you’re reading this and used to work with me, I would point out that you don’t actually know whether I’m talking about your company, or another company, so relax, chances are, if you know my blog, you’re NOT in the incompetant group.

I agree totally that the internet is full of morons who can’t code, or convince those around them that they can, I am working on a project now that looks like someone took one of those dumps on the street and pushed it through the CDROM tray of their computer and happened to find it’s way onto the net.

Zed’s main problem: misunderstanding

zed seems to think that I’m attacking his ability to create, whilst I don’t remember once talking about projects he’s been involved in (although on the net there is little evidence of that, perhaps he could clear that up by putting forward the projects he has personally completed), I am not attacking his work, I’m attacking the man, the fact is, that mongrel according to my peers is a great piece of software. Lamson, whilst I think it’s not a very worthy project, apparently is well regarded, even if it is solving the wrong part of the problem.

No no, all those zed lovers will be happy to know, that technically, I think zed is competant, weird isn’t it and no, this isnt an attempt to say sorry, or kiss ass, I really do think zed is a penis shaped candy, but technically, I think zed has done ok.

The problem comes, is that zed’s brain is often not as quick as his mouth and before zed’s brain can analyse when he’s said, his mouth has already said it and it’s too late, thats why his ghetto rant was removed and replaced with an “almost” apologetically written entry instead, you can find it on the web archive or whatever, but history has shown us that zed can’t live in our world without our help because he has some kind of inability to shut his mouth before he makes everyone around him wonder why they employed the guy in the first place.

Zed’s other main problem: money

This inability to control his mouth led to his other problem, he is complaining that nobody wants to touch him, or employ him and he’s not given the respect he thinks he deserves.

The difference between myself and zed is, I can back up what I say, or at least apologise when I’m wrong, I will point out this blog article I wrote 1 year ago.

in that article, which I will point out that he hasn’t replied to, he completely destroys any stock he had by spouting trash that anyone with a brain can figure out, is rubbish, this is his main problem, he doesn’t understand enough to realise that what he is saying, isnt true, when you point it out, you become one of those assholes he likes to rail against (pun intended!)

fact is, his article which is linked to in my blog article, is full of bullshit, thats why I wrote what I did, because I’m sick of his bullshit spreading through the internet, like some giant plume of oil making ignorant whatever it touches.

So then, when it comes to that interview time, he is offered a junior sysadmin post at google, because thats ultimately what he is worth, he whilst being very technically capable, hasnt the control required to sit at a table with managers and deal, he has to rant, he has to open fire, he has to use that wing chun, because it’s what he is, uncontrollable.

If you’re uncontrollable, you’re usually unemployable.

My Achievements, the ones he missed

because zed’s research either didnt work, or he was too disappointed that I have actually done things, so it would undermine his argument, I will point out what I’ve done, so people can take a look.

Mostly I do webdev, because I like it, I use a designer, we both work together on projects and create really amazing works together.

1) last year, I worked at one of the top hotel reservation platforms on the net, based in barcelona

2) I created a single file implementation of Paypal due to their inability to spend some of those million dollar profits on ACTUAL documentation, or test implementations that don’t look like they hired an idiot to write. this file install easily into your project, does paypal transactions and has no 500 file framework dependencies.

3) When I was 20-21, I created a plugin based graphics/game engine named fusion, which was about 36,000 lines of code, all C++, with heavy OOP and Dynamic library support. I know my shit.

4) I am, to date, according to my research, the only person on the planet, with a working file progress upload monitor working in pure PHP, without any flash/java/perl supports (I would actually love to hear of another implementation, because it’s strange, in 6 years, nobody has done it, yet when you’re uploading 500MB files, it’s absolutely critical)

5) I have created a widget system for websites, that allows you to split a site up and reuse it’s parts in other projects, along with the support framework that it needs in order to make web development easy and effective

6) I created ESFTP, which has I think over 100,000 downloads, even if you hate eclipse, or don’t see the point, or lament that it has no unit tests, I wrote it for myself and people at AMD have contacted me about using it, so I must be doing something right.

7) I am the manager of about 20 websites on the net, if you can’t find what those websites are, consider yourself one of the bottom 20%, I hope nobody reading this is one of those people

8) The reason I don’t update my websites so much and there are broken links, is easy to understand, I have too much work, I never have time to find everything and somethings lapse into obscurity, it’s a failure of mine, I work too much, live too little.

I can go on, but I won’t, zed either didn’t find out these things, or didn’t know where to look, I guess some people talk about the 20%, without realising, perhaps they are one of those people. What is the old saying?

How Ironic – so what’s this to be?
A New NEW Labour. What this country needs is somebody with a solid background, a reputable experience, a insider track record, a likable personality, both social & professional integrity, an attitude of long term stability with political cohesion & diversity at its core. Couple that with self-pride & worth, and a humbling attitude to the public who placed him in office. None of this you will get with Labour, or Milliband – the only man on the face of the earth willing to absolutely anything to secure himself a better job. A conniving little two faced, spineless toad. A wimp, a wart on the decency of public office. What’s even more scary is the fact the obvious Labour collective out there (including my constituency), will vote him in. New Labour remember that? Where did that take us.

Face it Labour voters.
Labour have no track record, only bad experience at the helm.
Everything they have touched, suggested, intervened in or ran away from has directly impacted everyone of us in more than one way.
And people still vote Labour……

I put my name on the web and I put my money where my mouth is, hardly anyone has the balls to do that it seems and when they do, they make such a complete cock of themselves it’s incredible.

Imagine this, I give point after point about why openoffice is failing and why office 2007 has gotten it right. Yet instead of detailing a single point why I am wrong, they say that I’m a whiney corporate schill or perhaps that i’m using straw man arguments. Yet instead of details WHY all this is true, they just say it and hope that it becomes true.

We, my friends, are in classic freetard territory, where the person who ends the discussion with “your wrong” wins. Classic idiot territory is another way you can describe it.

Here my freetarded friends, I shall give you a point by point way to success in: How to have online discussion

1) if someone says something you don’t like, it’s YOUR RESPONSIBILITY to put the world straight

2) if you wish to do this, you must counter what is being said, with arguments that address the original text

3) Saying “Your wrong!!!!one!!!!eleventy!” does not make you win the discussion, it just makes you look stupid

4) if you reply like this and you get smacked down, it’s because you’re an idiot, go back to working in McDonalds, the world does not need you

5) If you do reply in an intelligent manner, do not attack the person, if you get called an idiot, most likely, it’s because instead of replying the argument, you retorted that “you must think that because you’re stupid” because thats a sure fire way to lose any argument.

6) if you abuse me, I shall abuse you, plus if I am right and you havent demonstrated intelligence, I reserve the right to publically pound you until I get bored.

Those simple yet effective rules, shall guide you to your path, if they don’t, please go back to your basement, nobody cares about you and I really hope nobody procreates with you also.

You can see some people have demonstrated intelligence and are replied in the same way that they have done so, you can also see lots of people who have demonstrated idiocy and the resulting wrath that is laid upon them.

another modification for the fotobook plugin for facebook is the ability to automatically update albums based on a timer, which is great if you casually add photos to the facebook albums, but don’t remember to update them in wordpress, you can actually get the system to update itself.

Firstly, it’ll only work on albums you have already selected to show in the wordpress blog, so if you add a new album, you’ll still have to manually add that through the wordpress blog administration panel.

Secondly, open the fotobook.php file from the fotobook plugin in your favourite text editor and search for the this function

Recently I started to keep a fotoblog of my puppy Zora, the reason is that sadly, zora doesn’t live with me anymore because she lives with Cecilia now, who moved back to Amposta.

So I was feeling sad and thought that to cheer me up, or depress me more, I could start a fotoblog of all the happy memories I had and I could share with others who don’t have facebook.

The one thing I wanted to do was to import facebook albums, because I have a lot of cool pictures on it and I came across fotobook, which is really cool, you install it, connect it to your fb account, give permissions to access the albums and then import the album information which then lets you put that up on your wordpress blog.

One modification that I wanted to do to it though was that I wanted to import pictures from a fan page and also from my user account, which with the default, was not possible.

What follows below is a method to obtain albums from your account and any number of fan pages you want, here is how to do it

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you will need to open the ftp of your wordpress and using your favourite editor, open the fotobook.php file from the plugin after it’s been installed, around line: 290, you’ll find a foreach() statemen and just below it $uid = $session[“uid”]; that is where all this starts.

the idea that someone had was to replace this with $uid = “123123123”; where the 123123 number is the id of the fan page, this works, but the problem is that you also lose the ability to import albums from your account, so I was thinking of a way to do both, import from fan pages AND your user account AND any number of other fan pages (because you can just repeat the function call multiple times as many fan pages as you want)

I posted this to the help forum, I copypasta it here also

==========================

I have an extension for this idea grabbing the fan pages.

as mentioned above, you can use the following code

//$uid = $session["uid"];
$uid = "12312312312"; <--- fan page id

but a muuuch better idea is to refactor the code that grabs the albums, so you can call it multiple times, with any fan page id you could want, I explain.

just above the line where you comment out the session uid and put the fan page id, you find a foreach() statement, which loops through and grabs albums associated with that session uid, the modification basically says, screw the session uid, choose the fan page id instead

my idea is this, create a new method like this:

function get_multiple_album(&$fb_albums,&$fb_photos,$page_uid=false){

}

inside that method, copy and paste the ENTIRE foreach statement, just above it, if you are not a developer, this will be hard, find someone to help you understand how to program, then try it.

paste the code into the new method you’ve called and where the foreach was before, replace it with something like this

you also notice the first call to get_multiple_albums doesnt have a number like, 123123, it’s because that we are going to use a DEFAULT PARAMETER, to define that in this case, use your account, there is no fan page number, so use the account number instead

the benefit of this is now you can call it multiple times for any number of fan pages you might want to import from, you are not just limiting yourself to only one fan page, now you can import your accounts albums, plus any number of facebook fan pages.

inside the method, you will have to make a modification

where it USED TO SAY

$uid = $session["uid"];

replace it with

$uid = ($page_uid !== false) ? $page_uid : $session["uid"];

now go back to wordpress, import all your albums, hide the ones you want to keep private and you’re all set to go.